Monthly Archives: June 2025

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Brett Martin, Daughters of Khaine, Death, Fantasy, Fyreslayers, Games Workshop, Kevin Lathers, Lumineth Realm-Lords, Order, Peter Holland, Soulblight Gravelords, Top three lists, Tournaments, Walter Brock

Top Three AoS Lists for the Southern Fried Sigmar GT

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This is the top three AoS lists for the Small Town Throwdown: The Great Stampede that took place in the US on the 22nd and 23rd of June. It saw 42 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.

If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?

Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.

The Top Three AoS Lists

Lumineth Realm-lords
Alarith Temple
General’s Handbook 2025-26
Drops: 5
Spell Lore – Lore of Hysh
Manifestation Lore – Manifestations of Hysh
Battle Tactic Cards: Attuned to Ghyran, Wrathful Cycles

General’s Regiment
Avalenor, The Stoneheart King (410)
• General
Alarith Stoneguard (240)
• Reinforced
Alarith Stoneguard (240)
• Reinforced

Regiment 1
Scinari Cathallar (90)

Regiment 2
Scinari Enlightener (200)
• Silver Wand
• Flawless Commander

Regiment 3
Ellania and Ellathor, Eclipsian Warsages (280)
Scourge of Ghyran The Light of Eltharion (250)

Faction Terrain
Shrine Luminor (20 Points)

Walter: In my first event with the new GHB, I wanted to try out something new and not death related.  Saw the new Eltharion and knew what I wanted to do.

Went 5 drops to try and get the new once per game prio reroll to try it out and see how it went.  The reroll felt nice.

The Cathallar just fits with the points.  It is a cheap caster for 90 points that can also run around and do stuff while the main castle does stuff is always a good thing to have.

The Enlightener was a solid caster who sat in the shrine all the time, providing powerful support buffs and firing some shots from the shrine.

Callis and toll were durable pieces that sat on objectives that forced the opponent to commit too much to try and get rid of them while the rest of the list did its thing. Sometimes, they started on the board to defend against aggressive matchups or went in deepstrike when on wide maps to punish opponents for leaving their back points.

Avalenor and the stone guard were the main bulwark of the list.  Solid fighting with the extra attacks Avalenor’s command can give stone guard. The temple to reduce rend and Avalenor’s rampage while all backed up with a 5+ ward let them take some of the hardest hits the enemy could throw at them.

Eltharion was durable and dished out tons of damage.  Not being affected by debuffs makes his damage very reliable in some of the more durable targets. Between the ethereal spell from the enlightener and his 4+ ward, it required people to commit a lot of stuff to take him out.  And when he finally goes down.  One of the many spell casters made him pop right back up one more time.

The twins have a massive tool kit at their disposal.  Able to teleport into important places late game for scoring tactics or taking objectives.  Their late game damage can also hurt when they are in extra damage mode.  They are also durable with a 4+ ward in caster mode.

All together, the list has a lot of durability with 4+ wards and 5+ wards all over the place. The damage felt reliable.  With speed of hysh and the heroic trait.  The list moved surprisingly fast despite Stoneguard being base speed 4.

The tactic path felt okay, but I’ll probably change them.  I’m not sure what to do yet.

Soulblight Gravelords
Bacchanal of Blood
General’s Handbook 2025-26
Drops: 3
Spell Lore – Lore of Undeath
Manifestation Lore – Manifestations of the Grave
Battle Tactics Cards: Master The Paths and Wrathful Cycles

General’s Regiment
Prince Vhordrai (490)
• General
Barrow Guard (320)
• Reinforced
Barrow Knights (210)
Blood Knights (440)
• Reinforced
Wight King (100)

Regiment 1
Vampire Lord on Nightmare Steed (210)
• Lash of the Sire

Regiment 2
Vengorian Lord (220)
• Shard of Night

Faction Terrain
Cursed Sepulchre

Connor Irwin (not Tolbert…): Congratulations to Connor Tolbert for a fantastic showing for Soulblight Gravelords. The faction has a unique challenge of getting their 4th edition battletome (and a lot of meaningful changes therein) right as season 2 kicks in. Competitive Soulblight players are left figuring out how to make their new stuff sing and win these wacky new battleplans, pick the right tactics… All at once! Let’s go through Connor’s list and see what makes it tick.

Starting from the bottom, an addition that’s growing in popularity, the vengorian Lord with shard of night enhancement is a mobile and tough hero with a great rend debuff for combat attacks of enemies in combat with it, an extra d3 vamp healing for it and vhodrai if he’s lucky enough to be wholly within 12″ at end of turn, and a nice horde-munching charge rampage. So it’s got ways to handle a lot of threats and is priced well at 220 pts. Expect him to show up on a lot of lists this summer, especially when you factor in the shard of night artefact and how much that can defang high rend shooting (I see you ironweld degenerates!).

The fresh new hotness of the Vampire Lord on Nightmare Steed is here for obvious reasons. If you’re swinging 440 points worth of blood knights you are going to want them making their  charges with a reroll and with as much rend as you can find to make it count, and maybe get a boost from vhodrai for their next combat. The Lash of the Sire Heroic Trait is still an excellent choice at 20 points and is especially useful for positioning the cumbersome reinforced blood knights to clear the way for the Vamp Lord to make his charge.

The generals regiment is of course led by Prince Vhodrai, with a Wight King to run alongside the reinforced Barrow Guard to get both a 5+ ward and chain activate with a +1 to hit. A single, non-reinforced Barrow Knight unit is a bit of a wildcard pick without the requisite cavalry deathrattle hero to get them their 5+ ward too, but this was likely left on the cutting room floor in favor of the Vengorian Lord and Barrow Guard block. Those knights are pricey, but still a very useful skirmisher unit with charge damage and mortal crits. They have extra recursion and speed to be relevant all game.

Getting full mileage out of Vhodrai is sometimes a challenge if you don’t bring a multitude of smaller non-monster vampire units, but he’s still such an absolute chad in combat and has so much mobility now thanks to that rampage and an even more effective power through, he can still clearly do work and look great doing it.

Last but not least, the formation choice of Bacchanal of Blood is no surprise. The heroes all get a +1 bonus to casting out of combat and all vamps get an extra +1 to wound rolls when they charge, which they all want to be doing. The interesting choice here is the new Soulblight Manifestation Lore  and choice of Master of Paths and Wrathful Cycles tactic cards. Master of Paths gives you at most three rounds to kill an enemy hero before you have to get around the table with a lot of units, which with free unit return on table edges is actually not a big ask for this army. Wrathful Cycles is an interesting choice that rewards early turns where soulblight can get out and take early primary with replaceable units that can bait a double and set up the second tactic, while the third pairs with the last Paths tactic well and requires little actual enemy unit engagement at a time when things on the table have opened up quite a bit.

I think it’s safe to say the competitive Soulblight players of the world are eager to sink their teeth into all the new tech they just got, and thanks to strong showings like Connor’s, we’re learning what can succeed in practice.

Fyreslayers
Scales of Vulcatrix
General’s Handbook 2025-26
Drops: 5
Prayer Lore – Vulkyn Gifts
Manifestation Lore – Magmic Invocations
Battle Tactic Cards: Wrathful Cycles, Attuned to Ghyran

General’s Regiment
Auric Runefather on Magmadroth (320)
• General
Scourge of Ghyran Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (310)
• Thickened Scales
• Droth-helm

Regiment 1
Auric Runesmiter on Magmadroth (280)

Regiment 2
Auric Runemaster (200)
• Ash-beard
Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (150)
Vulkyn Flameseekers (160)

Regiment 3
Scourge of Ghyran Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (310)

Faction Terrain
Magmic Battleforge

Regiments of Renown
Saviours of Cinderfall (270)
Callis and Toll
Toll’s Companions

Peter: We’re lucky enough to have Kevin as part of our commentating team and earlier this week he wrote a tournament report on his weekend at Southern Fried Sigmar, you can read that here.

Sorry! This part of content is hidden behind this box because it requires a higher contribution level ($1) at Patreon. Why not take this chance to increase your contribution?

Final Tournament Placings

4th Edition, Age of Sigmar, Battle Report, Death, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Hobby Update, Kharadron Overlords, Narrative Play, Order, Peter Holland, Soulblight Gravelords, Spearhead

Death’s Season – Chapter 1: Sand & Bone

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It’s been about a month and half worth of work, but the Soulbight Spearhead is finished!

When the leaves fall, so too shall the living

— Inscription on the barrow-banner of Vaereth the Withered Crown

In the forgotten hollows of Mournleaf Vale, where the trees grow gnarled and graves lie layered like fallen leaves, the Barrow-Fall Court stirs. Once noble lords of ancient bloodlines, now twisted by time, curse, and oath, they rise not for conquest but to reclaim the dignity of death.

Led by the spectral tactician Vaereth the Withered Crown, the Court is a funereal procession of rusted honour. His lesser commanders, like Serida the Emberbound, are bound to him by pacts of loyalty and undeath. Their ranks swell with The Hollow Guard, tireless skeletal sentinels. The sky howls with The Gloamfangs, fallen nobility turned feral. And when the blood truly runs, the Rustcrown Lancers thunder forth, their cracked lances piercing through the veil between memory and oblivion.

Death’s Season begins.

What better way to celebrate than a clash of wits with fellow Woehammerer Ian at our local gaming club:


Spearhead Game: Sand & Bone
Kharadron Overlords (Ian) v Soulblight Gravelords (Peter)

Ian won the roll off to decide who would be attacker and defender and chose to be the defender.

I chose the Endless Legion regiment ability to bring back a unit of dead skeletons at some point in the game and the Cloud of Bats enhancement for my Vampire Lord to allow them one teleport during the game. Bringing back a unit of skeletons and placing them on an objective would be very handy in the late game, while having the opportunity for my Vamp Lord to teleport over and either kill something or score an objective for a tactic would also be potentially game changing.

Ian chose Disengage as his regiment ability and Leave No Duardin behind as his Generals enhancement.

Ian chose for us to play on the Dolorum side of the gaming mat and the standard length-wise deployment map. As attacker, I chose to take the first turn.

Deployment

In my Hero Phase I decided to take a risk and jump my Vampire Lord to 6” away from his Frigate using the Cloud of Bats ability, hoping that I could get a tasty charge off and down the Frigate in combination with the Vargheists which could hopefully also tag it in the charge phase.

The Knights and Vargheists moved up the board while my two skeleton units claimed the two friendly objectives in my deployment area and sat still to see how the battle would unfold.

The Knights launched a successful charge against the Arkonaut Company on Ian’s right flank and managed to get a toe-hold on the objective in his zone, which Ian had left open.

The Vargheists didn’t get as high a charge roll as I would have liked and instead had to settle for the other Arkonaut unit on Ian’s left flank. The Vampire Lord pulled of his charge before that, however (learning point here), and managed to connect with the boat.

Feeling confident in both the Vargheists and Knights, I chose to use the Vampire Lord to fight first and managed to only score two damage on Ian’s boat.

Knowing that his Arkonaut companies were at risk, Ian elected to go with his p against the Vargheists first and managed to score 3 damage against them.

I next chose my knights, but Ian used his Translucent Flesh from one of his cards to prevent me from hitting and wounding him on rolls of 1 to 3’s. I used the ability Grid them to Dust from one of my cards to give the Knights fight twice, but I lost a Knight rolling for the mortal wounds from this before I made my first set of attacks. The knights managed to kill only one Duardin as a result.

Ian chose for his Arkonauts facing the Knights to go next, and all of their attacks failed to cause any damage. Neither did his boat attack against the Vampire Lord.

The Vargheists managed to kill 4 Arkonauts with their attacks, which also meant they were able to heal back the 3 damage they’d suffered earlier in turn. (Note, it’s possibly worth delaying the Vargheists’ attacks to heal wounds back rather than choosing them first).

Finally, the Knights for their second set of attacks in and killed all the remaining Arkonauts on Ians right flank. (or so I thought).

With my turn 1 over, I held 3 objectives and more than Ian, giving me 3 points. I also managed to claim two objectives from my tactics cards; Hold Ground, where I had to hold the large terrain piece in my own deployment area (thank you skeletons), and Raze, which required me to have a unit within 3” of the opponents long table edge, which I’d achieved with the Knights on the charge.

Soulblight Gravelords: 5 Points
Kharadron Overlords: 0 Points

Ian used Final Breath, one of his card tactics, to bring back four Arkonauts in the centre of the battlefield on the objective. Then his admiral brings back two arkonauts fighting against the Vargheist with No Duardin Left Behind.

His Frigate disengages with the Vampire lord and flies over the top of him for a bombing run, causing 3 mortal wounds to the Vampire Lord. While his Sky Wardens move towards the Knights to try and prevent them from rolling up his flank.

The Sky Wardens shot at the Knights in the shooting phase, which included a massive 12 shots from the Aethermatic Volley Gun. But, with all that shooting, Ian only managed to take two health of one of the Knights.

The Arkonauts in combat with the Vargheists use their pistols against their massive foes wounding once.

The Admiral shoots at the Vampire Lord but fails to damage it.

After what appeared to be some very unlucky shooting Ian chose to shoot the Vampire Lord with the Frigate, and here his dice rolls turned as he did enough damage  to remove the final two health points off the Vampire Lord killing it.

The Arkonauts that have freshly arrived in the centre take some shots at the Blood Knights, killing one and wounding another.

Then Ian did his charges…. With his Admiral connecting with the Vargheists and the Sky Wardens charging into the Blood Knights while his Frigate charged into the Skeletons on my right flank.

Ian’s dice rolling continued as he managed to kill two more Blood Knights in the combat phase with his Sky Wardens.

Not wanting to be outdone, my Vargheists killed the remaining Arkonauts facing off against them.

Ian’s rolls return to normal with his Frigate fighting the Skeletons, only managing to kill one of their number (who would later be returned to the battle at the end of the combat phase through their ability).

Hoping for a little luck, my remaining Knight manages to kill one of the Sky Wardens.

Ian’s fickle dice continue to frustrate him as his admiral fails to damage the Vargheists.

My skeletons return the favour to the Frigate, dealing it one damage in return.

Ians scored 2 for the objectives he held and managed to claim the battle tactic Desolate Landscapes.

Soulblight Gravelords: 5
Kharadron Overlords: 3

Winning the priority roll, Ian chose to go first in round 2 and immediately set about evening the score.

His Arkonauts in the centre move towards my skeletons that are in combat with the Frigate and then charge them.

With everything else in combat, he skipped straight into the shooting phase with his admiral, killing one of the Vargheist. His Sky Wardens managed to wound the last Blood Knight twice, leaving it with one health.

His dice rolls, turning turning in his favour again, continue with his Frigate, killing four of the skeletons and his Arkonauts, killing 5 skeletons on my left flank.

In the combat phase, his frigate kicks things off by killing two more skeletons.

My Vargheists do two damage to the Admiral, and his Sky Wardens kill my remaining Blood Knight.

My skeletons whiff against the Arkonauts that charge them (me choosing them to try and remove them from the objective).

At this point, Ian chose to use one of his cards to use Bloodlust on his Admiral and managed to kill the remaining Vargheists.  This left me with just the two Skeleton units on the board. His Arkonauts fail to kill any further Skeletons and we move on to his scoring.

At this point, Ian held 3 objectives and managed to score two battle tactics; Control the Necropolis Dias and Raze.

Soulblight Gravelords: 5
Kharadron Overlords: 8

With only two units of skeletons left, my choices were dwindling quickly.

I run the Skeletons on my left up to the centre of the board to claim the centre objective and make sure thar they’re all within Ian’s half of the board to score not one, but two of my battle tactics this turn.

My Skeletons in the right kill the remaining Arkonauts facing off against them in the combat phase.

Those Skeletons in the centre managed to claim an objective for me as well as two battle tactics, meaning that I held 1, 2, and more for five points in this turn.

Soulblight Gravelords: 10 Points
Kharadron Overlords: 8 Points

With a win of the priority roll, I chose to go first considering what little units I had on the board.

The Skeletons on the right do two more wounds to the Frigate, and the Frigate kills two in return.

Still holding three objectives and managing to score all three battle tactics this turn gave me a massive 6 points.

Soulblight Gravelords: 16 Points
Kharadron Overlords: 8 Points

The Admiral moves towards the skeletons in combat with the Frigate, and his Sky Wardens move towards the objective on the right of his area.

Ian retreats his Frigate out of combat using his ability.

Then the dreaded shooting phase….

The Admiral kills two skeletons.

The Sky Wardens kill 1 skeleton in the centre and the Frigate kills two more of then.

The Frigate charges into combat with the Skeletons killing 1 and suffering no damage in return.

At the end of Ian’s turn, he holds 1,2, and more, as well as achieving two of his battle tactics.

Soulblight Gravelords: 16 Points
Kharadron Overlords: 13 Points

It was the final turn, and things were coming down to the wire. In our little pre-turn discussion, Ian mentioned that he was confident he could score 5 points in his next turn, which meant to claim the win. I would need at least 3 points to keep the victory. Luckily for me, the Battle Tactics I drew made this possible. If I could just run my Skeletons on the centre objective down to the friendly objective on my left flank, I could claim one of my tactics and score two from objectives.

The movement phase came, and I rolled a massive 2″. Not enough.

On to the combat phase and the Frigate kills another skeleton with no reply.

I did score 1 victory point for holding an objective but I doubted it would be enough to keep the game in my favour.

Soulblight Gravelords: 17 Points
Kharadron Overlords: 13 Points

With the game essentially over, there was no combat left, and Ian claimed hold 1,2, and more as well as two of his tactics. Victory to the Duardin!

Soulblight Gravelords: 17 Points
Kharadron Overlords: 18 Points

Post Game Thoughts

That was my first game of Spearhead and I got to say, I can see what people love about it. The match felt close throughout and neither of us felt like we couldn’t win the game at any point. Even when I only had Skeletons left on the field I was more than able to achieve battle tactics to score. Great stuff. Great opponent.

What did I learn? Well first off, I forgot a lot of Heals thanks to the battle trait ability, so I’ll try and remember that for the future. Also, the Vampire isn’t a wise choice to fight against a Frigate on his own.

Tactically, I felt charging up the field and engaging as soon as possible was the correct choice, though I should have perhaps moved my skeletons further forward in the early stages to support. The Vampire, could have perhaps hung back and supported the Skeletons against the Frigate once it made its move against them and THEN I could have used his ability to jump up the board.

The Ember Gambit

“She flew too early. Or too bold. And so the tide turned.”
— Castellan Hrelg of Barak-Nar

The first clash of the Death’s Season saw the Barrow-Fall Court descend upon the skies of Dolorum, their banners whispering through the still autumn air like falling leaves. Serida the Emberbound, restless and untested, led the vanguard, her auburn hair trailing behind her like the last gasp of sunset.

The plan was bold, Serida leapt into the heart of the enemy, seeking to shatter the Kharadron Frigate in a swift, glorious blow. Behind her, the Rustcrown Lancers and Gloamfangs surged from the mists, crashing into flanks and hammering the Duardin’s outer lines.

But the skyfolk were not so easily scattered. Their cannons roared, their frigate soared, and Serida paid the price. Cut down mid-assault, her body vanished in a swirl of bats, her ambition silenced.

What followed was a bitter, grinding war of attrition. The Hollow Guard, tireless and unyielding, clawed back, rallying behind broken tombstones and shattered hulls. Even as Vargheists fell and the Knights were gunned from their saddles, the dead marched on.

In the end, the Court stood but inches from triumph. Their bony hands grasped the threshold of victory, only to see it snatched by the cunning of the Kharadron admiral and the final thunder of sky-steel.

Army Lists, Beginners army, Blood Angels, Declan Waters, Games Workshop, Getting Started with..., Imperium, Sci-Fi, Warhammer 40k

Combat Patrol: Blood Angels – Beginners 1,000 Point Starter Army

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When 10th edition Warhammer 40k was released, Peter told us what he would do with Orks in the new edition. Despite being a primarily Age of Sigmar site, this has proven to be a popular article and so (eventually) I am expanding the series.

We did do a Blood Angel 1,000 point army for 9th Edition, but this is a different opinion based on the changes in models and rules in 10th edition.

As with all these articles, there are some affiliate links for Element Games (UK) and Amazon (US) if you want to buy them. But Bricks and Mortar first! You’ll miss your FLGS if it shuts down.

Combat Patrol Blood Angels

Like the other boxes the Combat Patrol box is filled with goodies and makes for fantastic savings when you’re starting out in collecting an army for 40k. They are RRP of £100 (US/UK), but most FLGSs provide a discount on this.

Inside the box you get:

Blood Angel Captain (£26)
10 x Assault Intercessors (£40)
6 x Sanguinary Guard (£74)
Blood Angel Upgrade Sprue

That’s a total of £140 if you were buying these kits separately, meaning you get a saving of £40.00. Plus the upgrade sprue.

Total So Far

This is 490 points towards our target of 1,000 points.

Getting to 1,000 points

To get the Blood Angels Starter Army to 1,000 points we’re going to add a few extra units that’ll give you something different to paint and increase your speed towards the enemy.

  • Tactical Squad (£37) (UK/US)
  • Rhino (£35) (UK/US)
  • Dreadnought (£44) (UK/US)
  • Baal Predator (£45) (UK/US)

This gets us to 975 points, and if you are worried about Tactical Squads disappearing in a future edition just swap them out for an Intercessor Squad.

Codex Costs

As everyone who buys from Games Workshop knows, once you’ve got the models you’ll need the Codex. For Space Marines that normally means two are required. And Blood Angels are no exception, so you’ll need Codex: Space Marines (UK/US), and Codex Supplement: Blood Angels (UK/US). Total £57.50 (Ouch!)

Total so far at RRP: £318.50 (not cheap, but remember this is Space Marines, and the second-hand market is worth looking at either locally or on Ebay)

The Army List

This is the list I’ve come up with

HQ
Blood Angel Captain – 80 points

Troops
10 Tactical Marines – 140 points
10 Assault Intercessors – 150 points

Dedicated Transport
Rhino – 75 points

Other Datasheets
Baal Predator – 135 points
Dreadnought – 135 points
6 Sanguinary Guard – 260 points

975 points

Blood Angels Captain

All pictures from Games Workshop

An HQ choice is mandatory, included in the Combat Patrol, and gives you a nice model to lavish your new painting scheme on. Paint the Tactical Squad or Intercessors first to get a scheme you like though. Don’t expect miracles from him, but he’ll be able to attack smaller units and hold up larger ones.

Tactical Squad

Tactical squads are great for holding objectives, and their bolters can kill many opponents with low or limited saves. If you are concerned about the old armour disappearing in the near future, you can use Intercessor Squads for these instead.

Assault Intercessor Squad

Iconic Blood Angels (and included in the Combat Patrol box) these guys are great at assaulting the enemy and throwing out a volume of attacks. They can force the enemy to react by getting near them, but they are slow… so…

Rhino

The Intercessors get a Dedicated transport to get them to the enemy quicker, and get killing sooner. Don’t expect it to survive a direct hit from Lascannons, but the speed here is essential to get the most out of the Intercessors.

Baal Predator

Iconic! A close assault predator which will rip through enemy troops. Don’t expect it to hurt other tanks though so you need to be a little careful with deployment and moving. Keep it near the Rhino and you’ll be able to break through a lot of what will stand against you at 1,000 points.

Dreadnought

Whilst I have chosen the ranged Dreadnought here to provide some anti-tank firepower, any Dreadnought can be used in this force. Ebay (UK/US) is a great place to pick up Dreadnoughts as they are often in starter sets. This is also a way to save some money.

Sanguinary Guard

6 Sanguinary Guard form your hammer. With their Jump Packs they will get to the enemy quickly alongside your Rhino and Baal Predator and their or spears can rip into the enemy on the charge.

Another iconic unit and another painting scheme to learn as well.

WHAT NEXT?

If expanding the Blood Angels Starter Army to 2,000 points I would definitely pick up another Combat Patrol box set, and augment the Sanguinary Guard with Jump Pack Assault Intercessors.

Another Iconic unit is the Death Company, and they are great if you want to try painting and highlighting black.

Alternatively, if you like the way the tanks play pick up a Land Raider Crusader as another transport vehicles and put the second unit of Assault Intercessors in it.

I hope you enjoyed this Blood Angels Starter Army article. How would you build a 1,000 point list from the Combat Patrol Box? There may well be aspects of the codex or units that I have not included that you think should be, so why not let us know in the comments below.

— Declan and Eeyore

4th Edition, Age of Sigmar, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Patrick German, Resources, Rules Roundup, Rules Writing

Rules Roundup: 28th June

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Our wonderful and friendly discord has a channel designed to take your questions! Sometimes GW’s FAQs are slow to be updated, and rules are either unclear or simply not phrased well for non-English speakers. To that end, we have an excellent team of lawyers on hand to interpret the rules and answer questions you might have.

Below are the questions that were asked over the last 7 days from our discord server and the answers provided by our legal department*:

Q: Is “at the start of the battle” explicitly defined?
A: There is no hard rule anywhere in the core rules or season rules that states when the “start of the battle” is. The generally accepted practice is that the start of the battle happens after deployment, but before the first start of turn phase.

This is why, as an example, a unit that moves outside of its deployment zone in the deployment phase doesn’t count as a Scout unit for the purposes of Scouting Force. Also, if you null deploy, your opponent automatically scores all of the Intercept and Recover targets, although this is such a niche case that it should be clarified with your TO.

GW very proudly talked about how they had split all of the abilities in the game into actions so they could have a standard language. This is a case where they abandoned that standard language in favor of allowing their players to argue about something. See also some vagaries on when a unit is using an ability vs. when the player is using an ability, but that is generally clearer cut.

Q: Can I declare the retreat ability and then not move?
A: The generally accepted RAW would be that no, you do not need to move after declaring the Retreat action. This will likely be clarified in an FAQ or Errata by GW, because it makes a huge difference in the Attuned to Ghyran strike tactic. Declaring a retreat with two units while not moving them out of combat would allow you to score that tactic while still allowing the units that Retreated to fight and/or contest any objectives they might have been sitting on.

The wording of Retreat states that a unit can move after it suffers the mortal damage. If you had to move it would say that the unit must move. This will likely cause some arguments with your opponents, since the last sentence implies that the unit cannot end that move out of combat, but if you aren’t required to move then that last bit can be ignored.

Again, this is a case where you should ask your TO before doing it. Some TOs will use RAW, and some will use RAI, where the intent would seem to be that the retreating unit must end the action not in combat. You don’t want to grind your game to a halt because of some odd wording of a rule.

And that’s all we had for the week! We hope you found this helpful. If you have questions of your own, feel free to join our discord and ask away!

*Please note that the “legal department” is a joke. None of these people are lawyers, cannot provide real legal advice, and are not representing themselves as lawyers. This shouldn’t have to be said, but US law is dumb so there’s the disclaimer. Don’t come after us.

4th Edition, Age of Sigmar, Fyreslayers, Games Workshop, Order, Tournaments

Tournament Report: Fyreslayers at Southern Fried Sigmar GT ’25

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The Event and Venue

This was the 2025 Southern Fried Sigmar GT in Atlanta, Georgia. We had 42 people (after drops) in attendance! Not bad from less than 20 just a few years ago. 

The tournament is actually part of a larger gaming event called “Southern Fried Gaming Expo” and your ticket comes with a badge to the expo. The expo itself centers heavily on arcade and pinball games as well as tabletop games and some vendors – it’s a small convention, but nice. 

(they had like a billion arcade and pinball machines)

The venue is the Renaissance Waverly hotel which is… fine. It’s connected to a very very dead spooky mall. So if you like liminal spaces and slenderman, this is the place for you!

The actual tournament hall, seen below, is quite a good space. There is enough room between tables you can actually walk completely around them; you are not crammed in, shoulder-to-shoulder or butts-to-butts!

(there’s more tables outside the frame, fairly spacious for 21 tables)

My List

Fyreslayers
Scales of Vulcatrix
General's Handbook 2025-26
Drops: 5
Prayer Lore - Vulkyn Gifts
Manifestation Lore - Magmic Invocations

Battle Tactic Cards: Wrathful Cycles, Attuned to Ghyran

General's Regiment
Auric Runefather on Magmadroth (320)
• General
Scourge of Ghyran Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (310)
• Thickened Scales
• Droth-helm

Regiment 1
Auric Runesmiter on Magmadroth (280)

Regiment 2
Auric Runemaster (200)
• Ash-beard
Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (150)
Vulkyn Flameseekers (160)

Regiment 3
Scourge of Ghyran Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (310)

Faction Terrain
Magmic Battleforge

Regiments of Renown
Saviours of Cinderfall (270)
Callis and Toll
Toll's Companions

I made six lists of various configurations: three 4+ droth lists, 1 2-droth list, and 2 1-droth list (i.e. infantry heavy). I then rolled a dice and this is the one I got to play! I think they were all competitive to some level and this one turned out to be more competitive than I anticipated. Still, a part of me wonders if the Auric Hearthguard augmented droth list would have been better.

This particular list is about options. At first blush the list looks as though it should play very aggressively; four magmadroths and the option for hero-phase-movement, on top of the run+charge rune, means you certainly can play this as an alpha strike or “go turn” list. 

But that’s not all it has. Because of the new prayer lore allowing for hero phase movement as well as additional mortal damage when bleeding, on top of the regular flexibility of runes, the list can do whatever you need. If you need to sit back and watch things unfold, that’s certainly an option. If you need to deny opponents movement or tactics, it can do that. If you need to punch them in the mouth or absorb a hit, it can do those things too.

But it can only do each of those things for a very limited time and not quite as well as other lists. Thus, the list becomes a jack-of-all trades and master of none. But more than that it becomes a list that is even more reliant on positioning and timing. 

Saviours of Cinderfall shore up the list’s one glaring weakness: inability to deepstrike and inability to hold an objective. Saviours accomplishes both these things, being both a deep strike threat (especially to support heroes) as well as an objective babysitter. You can plop them somewhere and say “everyone else is going to go do real work, you guys make sure no one messes with this, okay?” 

In retrospect I think the tactic choice was lacking and if I could redo things I would definitely have not taken “Attuned to Ghyran.” But it also wasn’t the worst choice and I did accomplish 1 or 2 of them nearly every game.

The Games

Preface: I am usually half asleep in round 1 and have been drinking in the later rounds, so my memory is often foggy on the details. 

Round 1: Win Against Sylvaneth on Surge of Slaughter

Sylvaneth
Lords of the Clan
General's Handbook 2025-26
Drops: 4
Spell Lore - Lore of the Deepwood
Manifestation Lore - Aetherwrought Machineries

Battle Tactic Cards: Master The Paths, Intercept and Recover

General's Regiment
Alarielle the Everqueen (680)
• General
Tree-Revenants (100)
Treelord (220)

Regiment 1
Belthanos, First Thorn of Kurnoth (350)

Regiment 2
Scourge of Ghyran Drycha Hamadreth (320)

Regiment 3
Spirit of Durthu (330)
• Radiant Spirit
• Glamourweave

Faction Terrain
Awakened Wyldwood

Monster heavy Sylvaneth! Looks like we get to smoosh monsters into each other and boy did we! Landon’s list was quite strong and the new Drycha is a true monster. Her 18” aura of anti-charge or debuff is also quite strong. Drycha is a great inclusion in his list and put in real work. 

I deploy heavily in the center, keeping 3 of my droths there and 1 to the right. I place the Shield Vulkites on the left to tag that objective and do nothing but hang out. 

With my 5-drops I was obviously out-dropped. He gave me the top of round 1. I put Callis and Toll dead center (not knowing about Drycha’s ward removal, RIP) and basically barely moved the rest of my army, keeping them just a bit behind CNT. I do intentionally stay away from the center, I don’t want to score too much and give him the possibility of a double-turn while still becoming the underdog.

On his turn he plops down some trees, pushes up Alarielle on the left, Drycha, and Durthu in the center, and uses Belthanos and a Treelord to cap to the right side (near my lone droth). Alarielle kills most of my shield Vulkites, Durthu + Drycha clear Callis and Toll plus all but one or two companions and take the center objective. He’s now outscored me!

Priority roll goes off, I take the turn and proceed to kill Drycha, Durthu, and surprisingly, Alarielle. Durthu and Drycha nearly kill a magmadroth, but Alarielle folds like a house of cards to a Runeson Droth I send that way  – bonus rend (from being the underdog) with anti-monster means I’m on rend 3 with the son’s axe into her. On the right side my other droth kills the Treelord near Belthanos. Drycha goes down to the lava blood + ichor prayer mortals and then Durthu is finished off with a Power Through from the Runefather. 

While my Magmadroths are very thin on wounds, with me having used the 5++ ward and +1 save rune, they are still alive. He has very little and needs an Alarielle revive to stay in the game. He doesn’t get it. 

Alarielle making no saves and dying so rapidly was a huge swing in the game. I was in a good position if she had lived, but her dying so swiftly sealed things. The fear of Drycha or Durthu coming back had me on edge, but making her have to bring herself back first means I was in a great spot. When she failed to even bring herself back the game was over. 

Landon took his crappy dice rolls in stride and was a good opponent. A fun game and a good start for me. He proceeded to go 4-1! This is good since the tie breaker includes the opponent win percentage.

My win 54-25.

(Fred and Luna battle it out)

Round 2: Win Against Soulblight Gravelords on Grasp of Thorns

Grand Alliance Death | Soulblight Gravelords | Bacchanal of Blood
General's Handbook 2025-26
Drops: 2
Spell Lore - Lore of Undeath
Manifestation Lore - Aetherwrought Machineries
Battle Tactics Cards: Attuned to Ghyran and Scouting Force
-----
General's Regiment
Vampire Lord on Nightmare Steed (190)
• General
• Immortal Ego
• Amulet of Graves
Barrow Knights (210)
Barrow Knights (210)
Blood Knights (440)
• Reinforced
Deathrattle Skeletons (100)
---
Regiment 1
Prince Vhordrai (490)
Vargheists (120)
Vargheists (120)
Wight Lord on Skeletal Steed (120)
-----
Faction Terrain
Cursed Sepulchre

I’ve come back from lunch with food and whiskey sour in me. The cocktail only empowers my dice when playing Fyreslayers!

John’s list is an interesting one. It can easily snag tactics, which is problematic, but it lacks a bit of punch in return.

I deploy, again heavily in the middle leaning to the left, away from his Vhordrai positioning on his right objective. I do put the flameseekers on the right in hopes that if he drags Vhordrai across on round 1 they’ll at least neuter his damage and lock him into combat.

He takes the top of 1, which I found unexpected, and makes me think he will go for an alpha strike: so I pop the fight first rune and chill. He proceeds to… chill on his side of the board and even pull back a bit. The fight-first rune is very scary. He does put the barrow knights in the center with the skeletal steed to get a tactic. They do have to fight my Infernoth, which they easily dispatch.

He’s way up on points and I plop CNT on the right side objective in my territory and proceed to dumpster the barrow knights + hero with three magmadroths. I also position in hopes he’ll get the next turn and charge the blood knights into my SmiterDroth and SonDroth on the left.

This turns out to be true. He gets the top of 2 and I take the underdog. I proceed to lock Vhordrai onto the back right objective where he can’t move. The underdog ability from the battle plan is VERY strong (locks units to an objective). He scoots around some units and charges the BKs into the two magmadroths. Their rampages alone kill 3 blood knights. The enhanced lava blood kills 2 more. The magmadroths then kill the other 5 knights easily and leave the lord alive on low health; a successful defense of my left objective. His vargheists are just doing tactics in the corners.

I go to my turn, kill his vampire lord, send one droth to the back left to cap the enemy objective there and the other two to the back right to kill Vhordrai. Vhordrai does kill one magmadroth but he dies to the other. 

The game is basically over now. He scores some points with Vhargeists bouncing around, but they can’t win the game. 

My win 68-41.

Round 3: Win Against Nurgle on Cyclic Shifts

Maggotkin of Nurgle
Plague Cyst
General's Handbook 2025-26
Drops: 3
Spell Lore - Lore of Malignance
Prayer Lore - Bendictions of Sickness
Manifestation Lore - Aetherwrought Machineries

Battle Tactic Cards: Intercept and Recover, Master The Paths

General's Regiment
Scourge of Ghyran Rotigus (430)
• General
Putrid Blightkings (380)
• Reinforced
Sloppity Bilepiper, Herald of Nurgle (100)
• Unctuous Preacher
• Rustfang

Regiment 1
Bloab Rotspawned (300)
Putrid Blightkings (380)
• Reinforced

Regiment 2
Orghotts Daemonspew (280)
Rotmire Creed (130)

Faction Terrain
Feculent Gnarlmaw

A tanky list on one of the more spread out battleplans! Zain is on a quest to become more competitive and is on quite a win streak with the new GHB. I’m actually sad I couldn’t give him a cleaner and more coherent game, but I had maybe dipped a bit too hard into the drinking.

We both deploy towards the center on the same side. I know he’s slow so I have no fear of him crossing top of 1. We played the round 1 game of staring hard at each other. But I notice that he leaves a nice opening near Rotigus for two droths to fit through.

I get the top of 2 and take full advantage of this. I send The droths into Rotigus, nearly downing him and cleaning up some blightkings along the way. My left side is playing “hold the line” against Orghotts and doesn’t need to push. I plop CNT over there to help the shield vulkite unit out for when Orghotts possibly comes in.

Bottom of two he’s locked in here with me and applies some pressure with Bloab. But the three magmadroths in combat prove too much and with a (finally) successful rampage from the runefather, Bloab and Rotigus go down. It does cost me the runefather (and gives him a tactic).

With his right side folding he needs his left side to pick up, but it can’t. Orghotts is basically playing games with the Saviours and slowly winning, but that only can last until a magmadroth gets over there to pick him off. I’ve taken the entire right and center so primaries are mine. 

Oghotts dies and the game is very over. Zain’s scramble to bring it back was admirable, but the huge positioning mistake with Rotigus at the bottom of one cost him the game when I exploited the magmadroth speed.

My win 66-39

(Nathan’s threat range is at least 44 inches)

Round 4: Win against Daughters of Khaine on Noxious Nexus

Daughters of Khaine
Arena Veterans

[Wrathful Cycles]
[Scouting Force]

[Lore of Shadows]
[Bloodshadow Rites]
[Manifestations of Khaine]

Krethusa the Croneseer [SoG] (240)
- 20 x Sisters of Slaughter with Bladed Bucklers (220)
- 20 x Sisters of Slaughter with Bladed Bucklers (220)

Slaughter Queen on Cauldron of Blood (320)
- 20 x Witch Aelves with Paired Sciansá (220)
- 20 x Witch Aelves with Paired Sciansá (220)

Bloodwrack Shrine [SoG] (230)
[General]
[Khainite Pendant]
[Zealous Orator]
- 5 x Khinerai Lifetakers (80)
- 5 x Khinerai Lifetakers (80)
- 5 x Khinerai Lifetakers (80)
- 5 x Khinerai Lifetakers (80)


1990/2000pts

Fred and Walter are probably the best players in this tournament and DoK are one of the strongest armies in the game. I know this is going to be a hard game, but luckily it’s on a low objective count mission so he can’t abuse the Lifetakers being insanely fast and cheap to force me to spread.

I deploy center, as does he. I get the top 1, as expected, and proceed to do the usual of putting Callis and Toll on the far objective to babysit it until the end of time which they do and throughout the game that does net me 8 points plus the 10 at the end. Eighteen points! Great work CNT!

In the center in round 1 we both on our respective turns barely move. It’s not worth it to take objectives we can’t hold and it’s too risky to go forward. Fred is particularly fearful of the lava breath and flamespitter thinning Aelves before they can get into combat, so he hugs obscuring while failing to make the objective obscuring. I do spread the flameseekers right but keep the Shields back with the runemaster, they are Scouting Force deterrents.

I win priority on round 2 and give it to him. I pop fight first rune and let him move all his units forward to hold the objective. He can’t risk charging and mostly keeps the witch aelves back. I push forward on my turn, kill most of the sisters of slaughter on the right but my runefather proceeds to do almost no damage at all and fails to kill them all. 

He gets the round 3 priority and tries to buzzsaw a unit of Witch Aelves into my magmadroths. Fortuitously for him my rampages all fail to go off and this allows him to have most of his fighting force around for combat. I also have been completely unable to banish his manifestation for -1 wound which is problematic. To make matters worse I haven’t gotten almost any prayers off the entire game except for Ichor. And thank Grimnir for that prayer!

The Witch Aelves nearly down two droths, but fall just shy of getting the job done (thank god for Mind Razor not going off). Krethusa’s prayer is super busted, as expected. Still, the droths punch back and kill nearly all the sisters of slaughter and the witch aelves.I do whiff hard on some attacks but thankfully Ichor had already thinned the Aelfs out pretty heavily. Honestly the dice have failed me hard this game outside an unbind, so thank god for lava blood turning those fails into a success!

He’s way behind on points now as my droths, while held down, clear him off the objectives in my turn.

Going into round 4 he NEEDS the priority roll… and fails to get it. This effectively seals the game as I can charge his remaining Witch Aelf unit and take them out. I also have been slowly killing his Lifetakers with shooting and my roaming unit of Flameseekers.

He still has his big heroes remaining and Krethusa, who revives a unit of Witch Aelves which proceed to charge and kill a droth because why not. But this won’t get him the points needed and the game is mathematically over here.

A tight game that could have gone either way in a few moments. I think I could have also blown it open at a couple moments but failed to capitalize. The new obscuring mechanic was an absolutely massive boon to him and the lava breath not being able to hit as much stuff as I’d like was rough. This was a really fun and techy game. I think it wrinkled my brain a bit.

My win 57-38.

Round 5: Loss against Lumineth Realm Lords on Lifecycle

(I bask in Watler’s glory)

Lumineth Realm-lords
Alarith Temple
General's Handbook 2025-26
Drops: 5
Spell Lore - Lore of Hysh
Manifestation Lore - Manifestations of Hysh

Battle Tactic Cards: Attuned to Ghyran, Wrathful Cycles

General's Regiment
Avalenor, The Stoneheart King (410)
 • General
Alarith Stoneguard (240)
 • Reinforced
Alarith Stoneguard (240)
 • Reinforced

Regiment 1
Scinari Cathallar (90)

Regiment 2
Scinari Enlightener (200)
 • Silver Wand
 • Flawless Commander

Regiment 3
Ellania and Ellathor, Eclipsian Warsages (280)
Scourge of Ghyran The Light of Eltharion (250)

Faction Terrain
Shrine Luminor (20 Points)

Regiments of Renown
Saviours of Cinderfall (270)
Callis and Toll
Toll's Companions

I haven’t played Lumineth in a long while, at least a few months. I’ve also never played this battleplan and Walter is a skilled player. I know this is going to be a rough game but at least Walter’s a gem.

Lifecycle has one of the more odd deployments in this GHB and I’m really uncertain how to deploy. Walter deploys heavy on the right so I choose to deploy heavy on the left. We get to go around in a big cycle.

I’m given the top of round 1. I put Callis and Toll right in front of his army on the rightmost objective. The plan is to hope that CNT can tank enough to hold him down so I can give him the top of 2. I move up on the left to take out his only unit of stoneguard but forget to shoot or even charge my Runefather droth on the left side  – I was wrong, the Fred game smoothed my brain out! Everything else just sort of hangs out in the center and center-left. There’s no real openings to push into him otherwise.

On his turn he pushes up and easily crushes the Saviours of Cinderfell. Turns out The Light of Eltharion does infinity damage, huh. His left side plays keep away moving on to the back center objective.

I’m given the top of 2 but can’t really penetrate his castle. I decide to clear his center objective to push into his heroes but just roll super shit and cant kill almost anything. The swinginess of Magmadroths is really coming to light. I also try to put some invocations to block countercharges but roll nothing but 1s, I manage to get no prayers off.

To make matters worse, my positioning errors are stacking up and he counter charges Avalenor into my SmiterDroth (expected when I failed the fyrewall block) but isn’t in combat range of my SonDroth (unexpected, I should have been more careful on measurements). I also forgot to activate my 5++ ward rune (I thought about it but then sort of forgot, don’t drink and drive, kids). Avalenor does take a lot of damage from the SmiterDroth but nearly kills it. Still, I am holding him off the objectives and tactics for now which means I’m well ahead on points.

His turn comes around and since I forgot to activate the rune last turn I can at least activate the fight first rune (which I’d hoped to have for the next turn). He loses Avalenor (to lava blood trading with SmiterDroth) and Eltharion (also to lava blood I think). My positioning errors from the previous turns have stacked too much now and I don’t have a ton of responses. To make matters worse my Runefather has done basically 0 damage to the units he can hit and failed his rampage every combat. His lava blood has done more than he has! The battles on the back center and right side of the map have gone his way big time now.

Despite my mistakes I still have a chance to come back due to the living Runefather and Runeson droth and the prayers coming out. I’m up on points so if I can punish his units and heroes I can keep him off objectives long enough he won’t be able to catch up. My gameplan is sort of working, just not how I intended.

Walter gets the double though, uh oh, and brings back Eltharion (GW, pls explain) in round 3 and proceeds to finish off my remaining magmadroths except the (mostly useless) Runefather. I think this seals the game. 

I do scramble for points and kill more stuff, as well as bog him down on the back objective, but I have nothing left that can deal with his heroes who are tough for a magmadroth to fight, let alone Shield Vulkites and Flameseekers. Still, my point lead and tactics denial means Walter has to work extra hard for those final few points. The twins have to kill a model to teleport to the objective on the left, if they fail it may well be a draw, but they nab a vulkite to do it.

Walter clearly had a plan (a good one) to rotate around the board clearing me out and it worked flawlessly. My plan to play aggressive fell apart and I need much better positioning to achieve it. The transition into tactics and points denial plan did almost work, but when you’re playing poorly you need a dice bailout and that’s just a gamble that won’t always work.

Walter is gracious in victory and it was a fun game. Very instructive for me, mostly that I need to try to reserve brain energy for game 5, but also learning how LRL works again. I definitely need more reps to see more stuff. A really close and fun game; I always like when a game teaches me a lot.

I lost 43-51. Walter wins the tournament!

Conclusion

(dem Georgia bois)

Very fun and very instructive tournament. Everyone was nice and the incredibly spooky convention center, hotel, and mall is actually a great place to host a GT. I don’t normally make full use of the convention, but it’s open until midnight so that’s certainly an option for some people.

I learned a lot about this GHB and can see some of how the current meta is developing. 

I also started to get the hang of Magmadroths. They remain incredibly swingy, but when they pop off their damage is INCREDIBLE. The new prayer lore is also clutch with both Ichor (extra mortals on lava blood) and Blazing Impetus (hero phase move) being really powerful. I went into this thinking Ichor would be useless and instead it was the MVP. I think it did at least 15 mortals every game minimum, probably close to 25 in my game against DoK. Overall the list performed well even if I think the tactics choices were very wrong. Still it’s hard to argue with a 4-1 and I think I had a chance at 5-0 but just got outplayed.

Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Brett Martin, Chaos, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Hedonites of Slaanesh, Luis Mendoza, Order, Peter Holland, Seraphon, Skaventide, Stormcast Eternals, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for the Throne of Skulls GT

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This is the top three AoS lists for the Throne of Skulls GT that took place in the UK on between the 31st of May and 1st of June. It saw 58 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.

If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?

Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.

The Top Three AoS Lists

Skaven
Warpcog Convocation
Drops: 2
Spell Lore – Lore of Ruin
Prayer Lore – Noxious Prayers
Manifestation Lore – Forbidden Power

General’s Regiment
Lord Skreech Verminking (410)
• General
Deathmaster (120)
Doom-Flayers (260)
• Reinforced
Ratling Guns (340)
• Reinforced

Regiment 1
Verminlord Deceiver (410)
• Foulhide
• Scurry Away
Clanrats (150)
Clanrats (150)
Clanrats (150)

Faction Terrain
Gnawhole

Seraphon
Sunclaw Starhost
Drops: 2
Spell Lore – Lore of Celestial Manipulation
Manifestation Lore – Morbid Conjuration

General’s Regiment
Lord Kroak (450)
• General
Aggradon Lancers (440)
• Reinforced
Raptadon Chargers (140)
Saurus Guard (240)
• Reinforced

Regiment 1
Skink Starseer (170)
• Coatl Familiar
• Beastmaster
Hunters of Huanchi with Starstone Bolas (100)
Kroxigor (210)
• 1x Moonstone Hammer
Kroxigor (210)
• 1x Moonstone Hammer

Faction Terrain
Realmshaper Engine

Hedonites of Slaanesh
Seeker Cavalcade
Drops: 2
Spell Lore – Lore of Extravagance
Manifestation Lore – Manifestations of Depravity

General’s Regiment
Dexcessa, the Talon of Slaanesh (200)
• General
Daemonettes (200)
• Reinforced
Daemonettes (200)
• Reinforced
Slickblade Seekers (380)
• Reinforced
Synessa, the Voice of Slaanesh (230)

Regiment 1
Keeper of Secrets (420)
• Strongest Alone
• Pendant of Slaanesh
Blissbarb Seekers (170)
Blissbarb Seekers (170)

Faction Terrain
Fane of Slaanesh

Sorry! This part of content is hidden behind this box because it requires a higher contribution level ($1) at Patreon. Why not take this chance to increase your contribution?

Final Tournament Placings

4th Edition, Age of Sigmar, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Patrick German, Resources, Rules Roundup, Rules Writing

Rules Roundup: 21st June

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Our wonderful and friendly discord has a channel designed to take your questions! Sometimes GW’s FAQs are slow to be updated, and rules are either unclear or simply not phrased well for non-English speakers. To that end, we have an excellent team of lawyers on hand to interpret the rules and answer questions you might have.

Below are the questions that were asked over the last 7 days from our discord server and the answers provided by our legal department*:

Q: Can you use Whirling Destruction after having charged with the unit of Moonclan Stabbas?
A: You can charge with the Stabbas then use this charge ability. Abilties in any phase are declared in any order you want, and are not all declared simultaneously.

Q: How do chanting rolls work?
A: Roll a die, and on a 2+ you can either bank the points or chant the chosen prayer. If you roll an unmodified 1 you lose D3 chanting points and cannot chant the chosen prayer.

Q: If I have a reinforced unit of clan rats, how many do I bring back each round for Seething Swarm?
A: Reinforcing a unit does not allow the unit to use the same ability twice in a phase. You would only be able to use Seething Swarm once per turn, so you would only be able to return D3 slain models.

Q: If my troll is positioned on a piece of terrain that has a section jutting out, is it within 3” based on the lowest point of the terrain, or based on the widest portion of the terrain?
A: I’ll be honest, this one got a touch complicated.

You need to measure a straight line from the farthest point of the model’s base to the nearest point on the terrain piece:

Note that the reason for this is that not everything is measured with horizontal lines. The only measurements that are “horizontal only” are combat range and contesting objectives/terrain. All other measurements have to account for the difference in height.

Q: Can SoG Iridan be used in the Ruination Brotherhood Army of Renown?
A: Yes. From the Battlescroll Summary:

So SoG Iridan could be included in the Army of Renown, but any Regiments of Renown use the specific warscroll included in the Regiment’s rules and cannot be replaced with a SoG warscroll.

*Please note that the “legal department” is a joke. None of these people are lawyers, cannot provide real legal advice, and are not representing themselves as lawyers. This shouldn’t have to be said, but US law is dumb so there’s the disclaimer. Don’t come after us.

4th Edition, Age of Sigmar, Beginners army, Fantasy, Fyreslayers, Games Workshop, Griffin Day, Order

Spearhead: Fyreslayers – Beginners 1,000 Point Starter Army

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Blood and Gold! Welcome to the best army in Age of Sigmar! With 4th edition of AoS chugging along it’s a great time to get into it by grabbing a Spearhead box to try out that fun format, and then build off of it to a bigger 1k game!

With that as our mission today, let’s take a look at the Fyreslayer Spearhead box.

Spearhead Contents

– Battlesmith
– 5 Hearthguard Berzerkers with Flamestrike Poleaxes
– 10 Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Axes

Building the box contents with Spearhead loadouts in mind, we’ve got 490 pts to start with. Halfway there! Now you could buy a second spearhead box and swap out the hero to get close to 1k, but that’s a boring answer, so let’s look at what else we can do.

The 1,000 pts List

Fire and Gold! 940/1000 pts
—–
Grand Alliance Order | Fyreslayers | Warrior Kinband
Drops: 2
Prayer Lore – Zharrgrim Blessings
Manifestation Lore – Magmic Invocations
—–
General’s Regiment
Auric Runefather (140)
• General
• Ash-cloud Rune
Battlesmith (100)
• Ash-beard
Hearthguard Berzerkers with Flamestrike Poleaxes (260)
• Reinforced
Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Weapons (130)
—
Regiment 1
Auric Runemaster (180)
Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Weapons (130)
—–
Faction Terrain
Magmic Battleforge

What You Need

– Fyreslayer Spearhead box (obviously)
– Auric Runefather on Magmadroth box
– Auric Runemaster
– Hearthguard Berzerkers with Flamestrike Poleaxes
– Magmic Battleforge
– Magmic Invocations

How Much Will It Cost?

There’s some value boxes other than spearhead out there for Fyreslayers, if you can get your hands on the dawnbringers box that’s a good one to sort out infantry needs, or the great Start Collecting box for close to its original price. But that’s all contingent on what your local LGS might still have on the shelf or what you can find second hand, so with the idea of making a buy list anyone could pick up today, here’s where we’re at.

Now in Age of Sigmar 4th edition , some factions have faction terrain and spells that can be summoned to the tabletop. Now fyreslayers don’t use no cowardly magic, they use prayers to Grimnir like true Duardin but that means you’ll need to get the invocations box and the forge (also affectionately known as the pizza oven) to aid your little guys. While not 100% necessary if you’re on a budget, they’ll come in handy for when you want to try out more of the game and definitely something to have in your arsenal when going to 2k points. You can also try and find base sizes that work for proxies to keep balling on that budget, so I included costs for the units and a separate cost for both units and terrain + invocations.

For the UK, you’re looking at £276 straight from GW for everything, or £219.50 for just units. And across the pond it’s more like $450 from GW for all the units plus the terrain piece and Magmic invocations or $358 for just the units.

Good news is the Magmadroth box will build our little foot Runefather as well as a Runeson and Runesmiter, with one of the latter as a potential rider for the Magmadroth, so with all this picked up you’ll have 380-400 points after you build either combo option on top of this 1k list.

The List

Let’s look over what we’ve got and why. I won’t go into the super nitty gritty of the faction, fellow Woehammer writer, and Fyreslayer player extraordinaire Kuhal did a great write-up on the faction and the datasheets when the edition dropped here. Some points change, and bodyguard change options have happened since then, like Field Sergeant helping our mobility issue, but the core of all of that remains the same, so I won’t rehash it here.
The biggest thing is to keep track of your rune activations. That’s where the Fyreslayers truly shine, as much as they appear to be a run and smash army they’re actually a “wait for the right time” run and smash army with some defensive tricks. And just to contradict everything I just said, the battle formation I went with gives all your infantry (this entire list) +1 to hit on the charge, which really increases their output (I did mention timing things right though). Anyway, on to the units.

Auric Runefather

Credit: Games Workshop

That’s right, Kingdom Hearts fans, that’s not a key sword, it’s a key AXE, and it hits like a truck. The Runefather is the lord of the Fyreslayer lodges, and he shows it with his whopping Rend 2 Damage 3 weapon. Aside from fun smashing times, he’s here to dish out buffs. Commanding presence gives nearby infantry an increased control score depending on the game round. This can seem just ok in early rounds, but later on, it can come up clutch.

His other big deal is the Royal Retinue ability. At the start of the game you pick a non hero unit in his regiment (so the berserkers or vulkites) to add 1 to hit rolls and both the unit and this might hero get a 4+ ward as long as they stay together. I normally put this on the berserkers to give them that extra killing power, but they get a ward buff being near a hero anyway so sometimes getting that extra protection on your vulkites can make those naked guys even harder to shift.

In this list he’s also equipped with the Ash Cloud Rune artifact, giving a once per game “you can’t shoot my footslogging dwarves” aura to help you close the distance before cowardly ranged units (*cough* ELGI *cough*) can rain death on you. 

Battlesmith

Coming in from the spearhead box is the battlesmith, a nice buffing piece with a high control score to hold points behind some helpful units and bring them back with extra rally dice to keep the pain train chugging along thanks to Bard of the Lodge.

Giving off an aura of ignoring negative modifiers to control score is just icing on the cake, especially if you overlap it with the Runefather’s ability to increase it.
I gave him the Ash-Beard heroic trait to make him a priest since he’ll be near the action but not right in it, hopefully helping rallies out and giving -1 to wound prayers on your dwarves, but there’s a good argument to giving it to your Runefather so he gets prayers or the Runemaster to get better at praying.

Auric Runemaster

Speaking of, this guy will be one of your best buddies as you grow your fyreslayer army. He’s a 2 chant priest, which is great for your zealous slayers, but also, every time you successfully get a prayer off, he builds a “good job” token (even for magical intervention). Once he gets to 3, you can spend them and those nice rune buffs you get go into overdrive for a second. Knowing when and where to spend those tokens is key to getting the full punch out of your little guys.  Keep him by the forge for a +1 to those chants so he’s even better at his job, and lets him unbind 1 spell as if he were a wizard, something your army doesn’t have.

Hearthguard Berzerkers with Flamestrike Poleaxes

These guys are your hammers, and I like to have the unit be a reinforced one of 10 to help survivability and to give them extra punch.  The broadaxe variant is also great but I’m working as if you built them as the Spearhead format recommends.

Either way they’re still share Duty Unto Death, giving out a 5+ ward to themselves and any hero they buddy up with if they stay nearby, and the crit mortals with damage 2 is sweet. The mortals at the end of the turn is just gravy in the unlikely event  you didn’t finish something off in the first swing.

Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Weapons

Finally, these little guys are your objective takers and battle tactic go getters in this small list. It’s tough with how slow they can be but they do pack a punch if they make contact with something and help fill out the board with some of your dudes which is why I left them as two units rather than reinforced for the 1k list.
Normally I prefer the sling shield variant and reinforcing them to a 20 man (or dwarf) unit to make them a real nuisance but as to unit size, I covered that, and  Spearhead format again has them built as dual axe wielding maniacs, and who am I to argue with that. 

By the fires of Grimnir!

This should be a great foundation for your Fyreslayer army and includes a lot of key units we’ve seen for full 2k 4th edition lists. Once you get some more games under your belt you might see some changes you’d make (if so let me know!) or see what cool things you can add to make it to a full 2k (try the magmadroths out, trust me). Either way, I look forward to seeing a new Runefather across the table from me at some point!

KHAZUKAN KAZAKIT-HA!

4th Edition, Age of Sigmar, Competitive, Fittsy, Games Workshop, Tactics, Tournaments

Fittsy’s 5 Tips for the New GHB

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This is for all you mid-level competitive players out there looking to get a leg up on your opponents (that means getting the edge to win your games… not what you were thinking if you’re unfamiliar with the saying) and for anyone else who’s just looking for another perspective on these things. If you’ve already played 10+ games with the new General’s Handbook… this article probably isn’t for you. I’ve had a few people ask about a bit of guidance going into this new GHB (which feels like a new edition). So, I’m here this week with a nice little short collection of tips (literally just what I’m doing myself).

No… It’s going to have a full 4-5 tips if you’re lucky 😉

Tip 1: Take it easy, mate!

Keep things easy for yourself and take a look at the battle tactics which match to the sort of things you do in the game.

Don’t take Wrathful Cycles… you’ll get distracted trying to work out how to be the underdog. Pick something which does what your army wants to do… and if you really don’t know what to take. Throw Intercept and Recover in and make your opponent make more decisions. Restless, Scouting, and Attuned are all pretty fair choices depending on your army.

Check out my article on the Battle Tactics for a bit more discussion on each of them.

Just take your same old army from the old GHB or something else that feels familiar and see how it goes. Focus on what’s new and don’t worry if your’e learning things step by step

Tip 2: Focus on the Primary

If you’re not here for horrible puns… Fittsy’s Foughts is the wrong place for you!

50 points are there for the Primaries and 30 there for tactics… you’ll probably be able to get 2-4 tactics and your opponent something similar so the difference will probably not be so huge. Controlling the primaries will get you points and deny your opponent theirs so the value per turn is still better than chasing your battle tactics.

Tip 3: Get in practice on the Battleplans

You’ve got an event coming up and the battleplans are published? Stop reading and get out there and practice a couple of games on each of the battleplans. These battleplans are wild (pun intended)! Each one feels really unique (some of them look ridiculous) and you need to have an eye on how to score turns 1-5 on each of them to make sure you’re in it with a chance to win it.

Don’t have enough time? Maybe watch someone else like the good ol’ fellas over at Season of War!

Tip 4: Manage your expectations

Don’t sweat these first games under the new GHB! This is not like the old GHB and you won’t be expected to score 4-5 battle tactics to win a game. Most of us are all learning how to play in a new way all at the same time so find some friendly opponents and just give it a shot.

We all overestimate our own abilities sometimes

Tip 5: No Fear

I believe that somehow this used to be considered cool!

You want to do something else? Fucking go for it. Follow your gut! Maybe you want to write a list and lean into scoring your battle tactics. That can work for sure too. Maybe just follow these tips if you feel like that. Go and find out what works for you!

Now get out there and get those games in. Stop reading silly little articles on the internet about how it works 😉 Good luck out there everyone… it’s the wild wild west!

Now you too can have this song stuck in your head!
Age of Sigmar, Army Lists, Brett Martin, Chaos, Cities of Sigmar, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Luis Mendoza, Order, Peter Holland, Skaventide, Stormcast Eternals, Top three lists, Tournaments

Top Three AoS Lists for the GERMAN SUPER MAJOR 2025

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This is the top three AoS lists for the GERMAN SUPER MAJOR 2025 that took place in Germany on the 25th and 26th of May 2025. It saw 48 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.

Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.

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Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.

The Top Three AoS Lists

Stormcast Eternals
Vanguard Wing
Drops: 2
Spell Lore – Lore of the Storm
Prayer Lore – Prayers of the Stormhosts
Manifestation Lore – Primal Energy

General’s Regiment
Karazai the Scarred (480)
• General
Stormcoven (210)
Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (400)
• Reinforced
Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (200)
Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (200)

Regiment 1
Knight-Relictor (120)
• Mirrorshield
• Envoy of the Heavens
Vanquishers (110)
Vigilors (140)
Vigilors (140)

Faction Terrain
Stormreach Portal

Luis Mendoza: My congratulations to Dario, with a 5 – 0 , based on a list with Karazai and a lot of shootcast. The roster is composed by 2 Regiments, under Vanguard Wing Battle formation the list turns on improve board presence using the Longstrike as threat since thie unit has the Vanguard keyword.

The General is Karazai, one of the most deadly SCE unit for combat, that improves lethality as long is getting damaged; fast and durable, specially if counts with ward; here Knight Relictor is the bearer of enhacements covering the need, using Envoy of the Heavens, this Infantry Priest hero – level 1 – also add benefits in the defensive game, reducing ward in -1 to rolls in an enemy unit, supporting the durability on the General. Mirrorshield artefact in Relictor deny the chance to be target of shooting abilities beyond 9″ of him. The extra value in this is the access to the prayer lore of SCE, including Healing Storm on Karazai and taking him away from combat using Translocation.

And about the non-heroic units, the Storm Coven, a wizard unit level 1 – or level 2 if they are contesting an objective -, contribute in the game with their spell ability to add Strike First or Strike Last -absoutely a plus on Karazai -, besides to get into the game to the Primal Energy manifestations depending on conditions in-game. And now, the shooting units, Longstrikes and Vigilors, the first of them an elite unit specialized on downing heroes, with a high mobility considering they are Infantry, able to move up to 11″ and shoot anything within 18″, bearing in mind that Vanguard Wing could help setting up a unit in any place of the table beyond 9″ of enemy units, the threatening area is wide. 2 simple units and 1 reinforced – this one with Priority Target -, the shooting damage output is high; if one of these units stays tangled to Karazai using the maximum advance there’s no movement restriction and the combination is impressive. Then come Vigilors, their contribution to improve the +1 at hit rolls – yes, also in Karazai – relief the dependency on AoA, and saving the CP to perform Power Through. The list is taking Vanquishers, usable against horde units and as sacrifice screen to trigger Envoy of the Heavens.

The Primal Energy becomes important to heal Karazai and add screening bodies.

Congrats Dario!

Stormcast Eternals
Sentinels of the Bleak Citadels
Drops: 2
Prayer Lore – Prayers of the Stormhosts

General’s Regiment
Knight-Zephyros (130)
• General
• Mirrorshield
Vanguard-Palladors with Starstrike Javelins (480)
• Reinforced
Vanguard-Palladors with Starstrike Javelins (240)
Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (400)
• Reinforced
Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (200)

Regiment 1
Lord-Veritant (110)
• Envoy of the Heavens
Prosecutors (300)
• Reinforced
Vigilors (140)

Faction Terrain
Stormreach Portal

Luis Mendoza: Cheers on Wolfgang 2nd podium place. His list is based in fast units, driven by Vanguard units mostly, able to reach far targets by shooting or even by charge. The Battle formation helps to improve resilience in Prosecutors mainly, this with a 5+ ward, with 2 drops there’s a good chance to decide priority.

The hero section starts with Zephyros, – who’s retired to Legends since last June 1st -, the General leads the Vanguard Regiment, able to jump to any part of the field by herself to steal objectives and meet mobility tactics, bearer of the Mirrorshield artefact to avoid being targeted by shooting attacks outside 9″. Lord Veritant is the priest level 1, with the unbind ability, in charge to use SCE prayer lore and assign a 5+ ward by Envoy of the Heavens Heroic Trait, also leading the 2nd regiment.

Vanguard units offer a wide attack zone to cover, even with the nerfed Vanguard Chamber ability, allowing to chose a unit in your hero phase, to run or retreat and still shoot and charge, the perfect complement for Javelins, moving 14″ + 6″ using At the Double, +12″ in shooting/charge range. Repeating range attacks if they charged is feasible to create a pretty decent output damage. The Longstrikes also playing the Hammer in Range role, can support the attack perfectly, specially against heroes. Each kind with 1 basic and 1 reinforced unit. This synergy is getting strong if we mix it with Prosecutors, the key units to counter shooting units or supporting key heroes, usually counting with Special Assignment + Finest Hour + Bless Weapon, they become in a Air-to-Ground missile, that could survive if get the ward assigned by Sentinels of the Bleak Citadels ability, also supported by Longstrikes the synergy is always a blast. The list is taking also to the vigilors, a unit that will take more relevance due to his +1 at hit in melee attacks if they get damage on their targets.

An efficient mix. Congrats!

Skaven
Warpcog Convocation
[Lore of Ruin]
[Forbidden Power]
2000/2000pts
2 drops

Thanquol on Boneripper (360)
[General]
– 6 x Ratling Gun (340)
– 4 x Doom-flayers (260)
– 1 x Doomwheel (120)

Verminlord Warpseer (340)
[Scurry Away]
[Warpstone Charm]
– 20 x Clanrats (150)
– 20 x Clanrats (150)
– 6 x Warpfire Thrower (280)

Gnawhole

Cities of Sigmar
Fortress-city Defenders
Drops: 5
Spell Lore – Spells of the Collegiate Arcane
Prayer Lore – Scriptures of Sigmar
Manifestation Lore – Forbidden Power

General’s Regiment
Tahlia Vedra, Lioness of the Parch (280)
• General
Freeguild Cavaliers (300)
• Reinforced

Regiment 1
Fusil-Major on Ogor Warhulk (160)
• Master of Ballistics
Freeguild Cavaliers (300)
• Reinforced

Regiment 2
Alchemite Warforger (110)
Freeguild Fusiliers (240)
• Reinforced
Wildercorps Hunters (110)

Regiment 3
Callis and Toll (230)
Toll’s Companions

Regiment 4
Freeguild Marshal and Relic Envoy (110)
• 1 Heirloom Warhammer
• Brazier of Holy Flame
Freeguild Command Corps (160)

Final Tournament Placings